


Night Lights

by Mortimer_Dead_Sea



Series: Fuck Stephen King: Mort Goes Apeshit Over IT [7]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Fix-It, Fuck Stephen King, M/M, Multi-Era, Post-IT (2017), Post-IT Chapter Two (2019), Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, This was based on a line in the book, fear of the dark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-31 08:07:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21124811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mortimer_Dead_Sea/pseuds/Mortimer_Dead_Sea
Summary: "Instead of answering, Richie scurried over to his bedside table and rested it on top. Then he unplugged the lamp, plugged in the little egg thing, and then pushed a button. Once he had, the little pod lit up, casting the room in soft, color changing lights.Eddie stared at it, absolutely transfixed.----Eddie woke up in the hospital. The first thing he registered was the physical ache in his stomach and chest, reminding him of exactly what had happened to him when he was down in the cave.The second thing he registered was the changing lights in the room, pulsing between different colors. As he looked over at the little egg shaped light next to his bed, he remembered what his brain had been desperately trying to remind him. He remembered that old light Richie had gotten him when he was young, the light he kept hidden away in a closet, never getting rid of it because whenever he looked at it, a great sense of something filled his chest, too big for his body, something telling him that it was important."Eddie has always been afraid of the dark. Richie has a way to help him cope.





	Night Lights

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently in the book, when Eddie dies Richie doesn't want to leave him in the cave and says "he's still afraid of the dark". So this is a story about Eddie being afraid of the dark as a kid and as an adult and Richie helping him deal and also Eddie lives because fuck the ending of IT.

According to Eddie’s alarm clock, it was one in the morning. He had “gone to bed” at eight at the insistence of his mother, and then had actually attempted to fall asleep at nine. He had spent those four hours tossing and turning, and he knew he would be continuing to do so until the very early hours of the morning, two if he was lucky, but most likely four.

He pressed his face into his pillow and groaned before rolling over so that he was facing his window. He looked at the dark sky, and the light of the moon and street lamps, before shutting his eyes, desperately willing himself to fall asleep.

He wasn’t sure how long he had his eyes closed for, but he opened them with a small yelp when he heard a knock on his window. There was a silhouette looking back at him, one he would recognize anywhere, because who else would show up at his window at one in the morning.

Only Richie Tozier.

He slid out of bed and opened his window, letting Richie slip inside.

“What are you doing here?” Eddie asked, trying to sound more annoyed than he actually was.

“I know you had a bad day, Eds-” Eddie opened his mouth to deny the nickname, but Richie steamrolled ahead. “So I came to help you feel better.”

“And how are you planning to do that?” Eddie asked, sitting back down on the edge of his bed.

“What, is my presence not enough?” Richie asked, with his too large, shit eating grin that set off butterflies that Eddie refused to acknowledge. 

Eddie didn’t want to admit that Richie sneaking into his room to see him already made him feel better.

So instead he rolled his eyes. “Well, I was _ trying _ to sleep.”

“So do you want me to leave?”

There was no disappointment in Richie’s voice, just genuine curiosity about what Eddie needed. Eddie could tell him to leave, and Richie would. Honestly, Richie never argued with Eddie when Eddie wanted him to go. Richie only argued with him when Eddie wanted to leave.

And right now Eddie didn’t want him to leave.

“No, you can stay,” Eddie said, as if it were a favor to Richie. With the way Richie smiled, it may as well have been.

Richie kicked off his shoes, and crawled into Eddie’s bed with him so that they were side by side. Eddie used to make him sleep on the floor until Richie would eventually crawl in with him, arguing the whole while, just like with the clubhouse hammock. And just like with the hammock, they didn’t argue anymore They shared instead, mostly quiet with a touch of teasing. 

Richie was on the side closest to the window, and Eddie had his back to his alarm clock. 

“Why were you awake at one in the morning?” Richie asked. They were facing each other, and Richie had set his glasses on the desk by the window. “I know there’s no way your mom let you stay up this late.”

“I have trouble sleeping,” Eddie said right before yawning.

Richie yawned back and then said, “Why?”

Eddie paused at that, and just stared at Richie for a few moments. Then his face hardened. “If you make fun of me for it, I swear I’ll kill you.”

“I won’t!” Richie made an X over his chest. “Cross my heart.”

Eddie glared at him a few more moments, and then closed his eyes with a sigh. “I’m scared of the dark.”

A silence fell over them for a few moments. Eddie kept his eyes closed.

Then he heard Richie’s voice, impossibly quiet, say, “Is it because of It?”

Eddie opened his eyes, and even in the dark, he could see the concern on Richie face. He nodded.

“I’ve always been at least a little afraid of the dark,” Eddie explained. “But It made it a lot worse.”

Richie nodded, and then grinned. “Well if big scary Pennywise comes around, I’ll be here to protect you.”

Eddie thumped Richie in the back of the head, but it didn’t stop Richie from laughing. He refused to acknowledge the warmth in his chest, or the sense of security he got knowing that Richie, the one who tried to distract him when he had been scared out of his mind, the one who had hit It over the head with a baseball bat when their friend was in danger, was lying next to him.

It took Eddie a while to fall asleep, but when he did, it was to Richie’s quiet snores.

\----

It was one in the morning again when Richie returned. Eddie wasn’t sure why he had come back. As far as days went, Eddie’s hadn’t been that bad.

“Why are you here now?” Eddie asked. “My day was fine.”

Richie was grinning, and he had his hands behind his back. “I got you something.”

Eddie raised an eyebrow. “If you pull out condoms or lube or birth control or something, I will kill you.”

Richie shook his head, smile never wavering. He held out what he had brought for Eddie to see.

It was smooth, white, and pod shaped. It was just translucent enough for Eddie to see that something was held inside, but he had no idea what. It was attached to a black chord.

“What is it?”

Instead of answering, Richie scurried over to his bedside table and rested it on top. Then he unplugged the lamp, plugged in the little egg thing, and then pushed a button. Once he had, the little pod lit up, casting the room in soft, color changing lights.

Eddie stared at it, absolutely transfixed.

“It’s on the color change setting currently, but you can keep it as one color,” Richie explained. He hit a switch, and it stayed on green. Then he began to cycle through different colors, blue, purple, red, orange, yellow, and then back to green, color after color filling the room.

“I thought it might help you sleep since it wouldn’t be so dark in your room,” Richie said. “Plus the light isn’t too bright.”

Eddie continued to stare at the light as he crossed the room and sat down next to Richie. He changed it back to the color change setting, and he watched the light pulse in an out with different colors, soothed by the kind glow.

He looked at Richie, and in an embarrassingly soft voice said, “Thank you, Richie.”

Richie grinned. “Anything for you, Eds.”

Eddie watched the light in bed that night, Richie to his back, snoring softly again. He fell asleep much faster that night, his stomach flipping and heart full.

And if he woke up curled in Richie’s arms the next morning, then that was neither here nor there.

====

There was no way in hell that Eddie was going to be able to sleep in his own room after his face off with Bowers earlier that day, and so he found himself in Richie’s room instead. Eddie had recollections of nights spent with Richie in his bed after long, hard days. Some of the information was still fuzzy, but he remembered sleeping better next to him.

Right now, he was curled inwards, exhausted, but wide awake.

Richie shifted, and groaned, and then turned inward as well. Their eyes met and he said, “You having just as much trouble sleeping?”

Eddie sighed. “Probably worse. At least you were asleep until just now.”

Richie studied him for a few moments before asking, “Are you still afraid of the dark?”

Eddie knew he had always been afraid of the dark, even now as an adult. He could never tell why, other than the nagging feeling that a great, powerful _ something _was coming to get him. With his memories restored, he realized that that “something” was Pennywise.

Eddie closed his eyes and nodded. He felt the bed dip, and then opened his eyes to watch Richie get up and walk over to the bathroom. He flicked on the light, and then closed the door just a tad.

Richie grinned. “Makeshift night light.”

He climbed back into the bed and yawned. “Good night, Eds.”

“That’s not my name, asshole,” Eddie muttered. Then he yawned, too. “Good night, Rich.”

He did his best to ignore that warm feeling in his chest, all too familiar. With all the memories he had gotten back over the past couple of days, he remembered just how much he had loved Richie, and now grappled with the knowledge that he would probably always love him. He instead focused on the scratching of a memory at the back of his head, desperate to get out. He fell asleep thinking about lights and colors, not knowing what they meant.

\----

Eddie woke up in the hospital. The first thing he registered was the physical ache in his stomach and chest, reminding him of exactly what had happened to him when he was down in the cave.

The second thing he registered was the changing lights in the room, pulsing between different colors. As he looked over at the little egg shaped light next to his bed, he remembered what his brain had been desperately trying to remind him. He remembered that old light Richie had gotten him when he was young, the light he kept hidden away in a closet, never getting rid of it because whenever he looked at it, a great sense of _ something _ filled his chest, too big for his body, something telling him that it was important.

He saw a little piece of paper next to it, and with a wince, he reached out and took it to read.

_ Figured you wouldn’t want to wake up in the dark. We’ll be by to see you when you wake up. _

_ Richie _

Even without the name, Eddie would have known. Eddie knew Richie’s handwriting. And, of course, his taste in lighting.

He looked out the big window by his bed into the dark sky, lit by the moon and streetlamps. Then he looked back at the little light and its shifting rainbow, and smiled.

\----

What Eddie discovered upon seeing his friends when he woke up, was that the second Eddie had been safe in the hospital, Richie had gone out and bought that light and left it in the room with the instructions that it be turned on when all the lights went out. And so each and every night, when all the lights were out, Eddie’s room remained lit.

“Richie said something about you being afraid of the dark,” Bev had explained. “He was so desperate to get you out of that cave. He kept talking about how you were still alive and that it was dark and we couldn’t leave you there because you’re still afraid of the dark”

Eddie felt a flush of embarrassment that the rest of the Losers now knew he was still afraid of the dark, but he also felt a surge of gratitude and love towards Richie for getting him out of there and to the hospital, eclipsing the embarrassment a thousand times over.

All the Losers were already there when Richie showed up, and even so, Eddie had never seen someone look so relieved to see him. 

The two of them stared at each other for a while, not speaking or moving. Richie’s eyes looked wet, magnified behind his thick glasses, and in them, Eddie saw something desperate. They both jumped when Bev cleared her throat.

“Let’s give them some time alone guys,” she said.

Everyone began to file out without another word. Richie moved over so that they could squeeze past, but he never took his eyes off Eddie.

Once everyone was gone, a heavy silence fell over them. Eddie could have sworn his ears were ringing.

He swallowed, and in a broken voice said _ “Richie”, _ and then Richie was rushing towards him. He grabbed at Richie’s face and pulled him down, and then they were kissing hard, high on life and death and fear and relief and a lifetime’s worth of desperate love and wanting. Eddie’s cheeks were wet and he had no idea if they were Richie’s tears, or his, or both, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was Richie’s lips on his and Richie’s hands on his back and just _ Richie, _ alive and in front of him.

Richie pulled away, and Eddie immediately noticed they were both crying. Richie cradled his face in his hands, and he leaned forward to place a kiss on his forehead.

“I love you so much, Eds,” he whispered. His voice was quiet, and choked, and pressed into Eddie’s forehead. “I was so scared.”

“I love you, too,” Eddie said, hands grasping at Richie’s shirt.

“Please stay with me,” Richie said, breathless and desperate. “I can’t lose you again.”

“Ok,” Eddie agreed. He didn’t say it without thinking. He had been thinking about it since he saw Richie in the Chinese restaurant and was flush with memories and feelings of being in love. His feelings hadn’t faded over the past few days. If anything, they had gotten stronger, with Richie desperate to keep him safe and going out and buying the same night light from thirty years ago. He was prepared if Richie was.

Richie sobbed, and Eddie pulled him closer.

\----

Myra had been adamant that she get the house. Eddie agreed easily enough, knowing that Richie’s house was waiting for him. He gave Bev his house key and she and the other Losers went to his house to pack everything up and send it to Richie’s place in LA while Eddie recovered in Maine.

When Richie found out that Eddie had kept that light his whole life, he had gotten very teary eyed, and then smiled at Eddie with all the love in the world. Now both lights rested on their bedside table.

“I can bring one with me on tours,” Richie had said. “Then it’ll kind of be like I’m home.”

Eddie’s eyes had itched at that, and he had walked over to Richie and kissed him, soft and slow.

And years down the line, when neither of them were scared of the dark and what it may hide anymore, they kept the lights on anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> My Twitter, where I constantly yell about IT: @mortimerdeadsea


End file.
